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In LOOKIN' TO GET OUT, Hal Ashby, who had directed Jon Voight in COMING HOME, gives him free reign in a script Voight cowrote, although much of it has the feel of spontaneous improvisation on the set, with Voight cracking up and doing odd bits of physical comedy. He stars as Alex Kovac, a charming, happy-go-lucky gambler who's ten thousand dollars in debt to the mob in New York, leading him to flee to Las Vegas with his adoring but none-too-bright bosom buddy, Jerry (Burt Young). He hopes to win money at blackjack but doesn't have the stakes. Fate (or movie plotting) lends a hand when they are mistaken for high-roller friends of the hotel manager, Bernie Gold (Richard Bradford), and they are given a free suite and advanced gambling money by the casino. Alex's ex-girlfriend, Patti (Ann-Margret), who's now, unknown to him, living in the hotel with Bernie Gold and their daughter, Tosh (Angelina Jolie), spots him in the lobby. But Alex is more interested in a waiter, Smitty (Bert Remsen), whom he remembers as a famous gambler from years ago. He hatches a plot with Smitty to win back the money, ending with an incredibly wild, although realistically staged, blackjack game.
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